BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Foundation Medicine, Inc., a precision medicine company transforming lives in cancer care and beyond, today announced it has awarded its Improving Diagnostics Education and Awareness (IDEA) Program grant to My Style Matters, Inc. and H.Y.P.E. to Empower, Inc. The grant will fund the Community Outreach for Detection and Education (C.O.D.E.) program, aimed at increasing access to biomarker testing in Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities.
Foundation Medicine’s IDEA Program requests proposals that include collaboration between two separate organizations, recognizing that addressing disparities in oncology care requires multi-stakeholder partnerships. The C.O.D.E. program is a collaboration between My Style Matters, a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life and health outcomes for individuals and families impacted by cancer, and H.Y.P.E. to Empower, a national non-profit advancing digital health literacy, youth development and storytelling.
The C.O.D.E. program combines the expertise of the organizations in a two-phase, 14-week health equity initiative designed to empower 48 Black, Latinx or LGBTQ+ individuals across the metro Atlanta areas to become trusted digital and on-the-ground advocates for biomarker testing and precision medicine. The initiative aims to reach 5,000 individuals through its digital advocates with the goal of raising awareness, access and utilization of biomarker testing for those impacted by breast, lung, prostate and colorectal cancers.
“At Foundation Medicine, we believe everyone should benefit from precision medicine, but we know that each new medical advancement can inadvertently create gaps that leave some without access to this innovation,” said Jennifer Romans, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Foundation Medicine. “That’s why we are proud to partner with organizations like My Style Matters and H.Y.P.E. to Empower that have strong histories of working directly in underserved communities. With programs tailored to increasing awareness, education and access to high-quality biomarker testing, together we can transform lives in cancer care and beyond.”
Precision therapies, driven by actionable biomarkers, represent advances and hold promise for people diagnosed with cancer.1 However, well-documented barriers to cancer care exist in many areas, including access to biomarker testing.2,3 This year’s grant builds on Foundation Medicine’s continued commitment to advancing access to high-quality biomarker tests to deliver on the value of precision medicine. Previously, Foundation Medicine awarded grants to Living Beyond Breast Cancer and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Jefferson Health; Patient Advocate Foundation and ZERO Prostate Cancer; and Moffitt Cancer Center and LUNGevity Foundation to increase access to biomarker testing for breast, prostate and lung cancer.
About Foundation Medicine
At Foundation Medicine, our mission is to transform lives in cancer and beyond. We strive to provide multi-modal precision diagnostic solutions to transform cancer care throughout a patient’s experience, from pre-diagnosis to ongoing management and monitoring. Leveraging our vast knowledge of precision medicine, we partner with biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate the development of new personalized therapies in cancer and in a range of other diseases. For more information, visit us at www.FoundationMedicine.com and follow us on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
1 Schwaederle M, Zhao M, Lee JJ, et al. Association of biomarker-based treatment strategies with response rates and progression-free survival in refractory malignant neoplasms: a meta-analysis. JAMA Oncol. 2016;2(11):1452-1459. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.2129
2 Polite BN, Adams-Campbell LL, Brawley OW, et al. Charting the future of cancer health disparities research: a position statement from the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the National Cancer Institute. CA Cancer J Clin. 2017; 67(5):347-431. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21404
3 L.E.K. interviews and analysis FMI-purchased Kantar data, SEER, MedPanel ‘Assessment of Market for Pan- Cancer Testing Wave 2’, IMS Health Medical Claims Data (DX) dataset (April 2015 to Dec 2016)
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